Syria: Right or wrong?

Does exactly what it says on the tin. Some of the nonsense contained herein may be very loosely related to The Sisters of Mercy, but I wouldn't bet your PayPal account on it. In keeping with the internet's general theme nothing written here should be taken as Gospel: over three quarters of it is utter gibberish, and most of the forum's denizens haven't spoken to another human being face-to-face for decades. Don't worry your pretty little heads about it. Above all else, remember this: You don't have to stay forever. I will understand.
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What about Syria?

Crazy fan
3
43%
Creep without inspiration
4
57%
 
Total votes: 7
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kazamel
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I never see the band Syria (Christian Dörge) popping up on HL, although there's a clear connection with the Sissies. He uses Sisters-esque material (such as the Eye of Ra), uses (more than) familiar sounding song titles such as A Gift From Culture, Neverland Things, Fragments, Ozymandias, Black October, he made a cover version of Giving Ground and even stole unreleased sissies tracks to create his own (Wide receiver). Strangely enough though, the music itself is somewhat different than Sisters stuff.

Is this a fan who honours his idols in his work, or is this a creep with a lack of inspiration looking for an easy buck? Me thinks the latter (although I quite liked his early music under his own name).

http://www.infrarot.de/index.php?page=music-b-3905
http://www.backagain.de/wavegoth/syria.htm
I like these calm little moments before the storm. It reminds me of Beethoven. Can you hear it? It's like when you put your head to the grass and you can hear the growin' and you can hear the insects.
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Ozpat
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Seems to me like a crazy fan without any other inspiration.
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Dark
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I'd guess it's the same as with Eldritch and Cohen/T.S. Elliot
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timsinister
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Doesn't seem like the austere and oblique references that AE makes to his muses...

More a blatant rehash. Tut Tut.
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mh
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Sounds like a stalker to me!
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aims
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Dark wrote:I'd guess it's the same as with Eldritch and Cohen/T.S. Elliot
I wish people would stop spouting this every time some no-name Von-alike comes up. Eldritch uses as many references as any other established writer, but they don't have 1959 and all that to clue you in.

A lot of goth "artists" try to be Eldritch, not to assimilate their favourite bits and mould it into their own image, which is very fundamentally different from Von's approach. I'd freely admit to borrowing the "spot the reference" game from him, as well as the lack of inclination to allow my semantic field to cross over into the mundane and vapid, but the drum parts and riffs owe more to Bauhaus, The Cure or Pink Floyd. Mix and match is standard fayre - if you don't work with what people know, then it's very hard to get through to them. In turn, the artist adds their own idiosyncracies which others can take as a seed for something further.

A nod to an author is a nice way of expanding the semantic field - referencing fiction has no creative difference from referencing current affairs, you take a basic idea and run with it. However, blatantly derived song titles and artwork do no such expansion, because everything that can be said has already been.
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Quiff Boy
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never heard of him/them, and doesnt sound like i'm missing much.

i guess the fact that they never come up on HL means that no one really gives a damn about his "work" :?: :lol:
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aims
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When it comes to such bands, we generally do.

It just doesn't make sense to pay for it again when we've already bought Floodland :roll:
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Quiff Boy
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as far as the rest of it goes, i'm with motz on this one :notworthy:
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boudicca
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German eh? :lol: Figures.
mh wrote:Sounds like a stalker to me!
I reckon it's Von himself, in some kind of denial about having run out of ideas.
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eotunun
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RobF
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Damnit, I thought this thread was actually about Syria. :lol:

I got quite excited as I'm off to Damascus in October. Not a Sissies related decision, but it is quite exciting actually having: "...a ticket to Syria" ;D :von:

P.S. Any Syrian/Lebanese types on here?

Almazas all round

Shukran...
"...by the time I get to Arizona..."
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James Blast
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Syria? Neverland Things? Fragments? nice to see someone with a bigger Never Land (a fragment) fixation than me

d'ye think he has monkey and stuff'? :lol:
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taylor
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I knew him personally, he's a good artist in depth not a stalker
his version of SKOS-CN is superb as Giving Ground
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boudicca
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taylor wrote:his version of SKOS-CN is superb as Giving Ground
Hmmmmm...

I remain to be convinced.
There's a man with a mullet going mad with a mallet in Millets
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